When I was at school I was a typical geek.

Memory-Sports: Tell us a little bit about your youth.

Ben: My youth was completely uninteresting to anyone who wants to know about memory sports. When I was at school I was a typical geek (a late 80s, early 90s geek – I didn’t touch a computer from one week to the next), I was good at maths and I spent every spare second at school playing chess or cards with my equally geeky gang of friends. I did memorise a poem once, at the age of 12, for a school event (Macavity the Mystery Cat), but only because Mrs Slater the English teacher told me to. I suppose you could say that set me on the road to becoming a World Memory Champion, but I don’t think it really did.

Announcing of scores at the WMC 2009

Memory-Sports: What was your first contact with memory sports?

Ben: The short answer that I give to people who ask me this question is “I went along to the WMC in 2000 to see what it was like, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” The full answer is a little bit more complicated, but only a little:

In 1997, I read in Mensa Magazine about a brand new event called the Mind Sports Olympiad, which was an Olympic Games for mind sports, with competitions in everything even vaguely mind-related, over the course of a week at the Royal Festival Hall in London. I decided to go along and take part in the World Intelligence Championship, a brand-new competition that involved five full days of IQ puzzles. It was great fun (I came fifth out of about twelve competitors), and I also had the opportunity to check out some of the various other board games, card games and mental skills competitions taking place there. One thing I didn’t notice at all, as far as I can remember, was the World Memory Championship, which took place as part of the MSO that year.

In 1998, when the MSO had relocated to the Novotel in Hammersmith with a greatly reduced budget but was still a lot of fun, I entered a lot of other competitions as well as the Intelligence, and for the first time consciously registered the existence of the World Memory Championship. On the first day of the WMC (it was a two-day competition back then) I heard that the favourite discipline there was memorising a pack of cards, and I was curious to know just how difficult that was. So I bought a pack of cards and that evening I tried to memorise it, by repeating the cards to myself until I’d got them all memorised in sequence. It took me 48 minutes.

I tried to memorise a pack of cards, by repeating the cards to myself until I’d got them all memorised in sequence. It took me 48 minutes.

Deep concentration

The next day, I was sitting at a desk ready to start the Mental Calculations World Championship, somebody came in (I think it was David Levy, who in those days was one of the ‘big three’ along with Tony Buzan and Raymond Keene who ran the event) and announced that Andi Bell had broken the world record in speed cards with 34.03 seconds. The disparity between those results fascinated me, and I wondered how fast I could get if I kept practicing. So I did keep practicing over the next couple of years, whenever I had a spare moment. I got down to about fifteen minutes in the end, still without using any kind of memory techniques – I had heard them mentioned in an article (an interview with Demis Hassabis, who said he was planning to learn how to do it) but dismissed the whole journey method as some rubbish that someone had made up to sell books, which couldn’t possibly work.

In 1999, at the Decamentathlon (a competition composed of puzzles in ten different mind sports, including memory), I met Tom Groves, who impressed everyone by memorising a pack of cards perfectly in five minutes and who apparently really did use those memory techniques I’d heard about. But I still wasn’t really convinced. Anyway,  I was still interested in the memory championships, so when I found a gap in my MSO schedule in 2000, I decided to compete.

I tried my hand at the first discipline, hour numbers, without any memory technique, and unsurprisingly got a pretty bad score, and then the second discipline was the poem, which to my surprise (and everyone else’s),  I won. That was fun, I thought. Maybe if I could get good at the other disciplines, I could do well in this memory thing. Some of the other competitors managed to convince me that memory techniques really do work, so I went out and bought a book (Use Your Memory, by Tony Buzan) and read the chapters about cards and numbers – I ignored everything else in the book that wasn’t about the specific events tested in the World Memory Championship. I created a couple of journeys and a set of images for cards, and started practicing. The next day in Hour Cards, using my new system, I managed to memorise three packs, and I was very impressed. I still wasn’t fast enough to memorise a pack in under five minutes, but I got it down to seven and a half that night. I was addicted to memory techniques for life from that point onwards.

Ben with Dominic O'Brien

Memory-Sports: Who was your role model in your early days as a memory athlete?

Ben: In those days, there was only one real role model for everyone – Dominic O’Brien. He was by far and away the best memoriser in the world, and he always won the World Championships comfortably. But his main rival was Andi Bell, and I quickly became a fan of his. In 2000, just before the competition started, Andi came up to me (he had his hair in a ponytail back then, and looked very cool) and said “Hi, I’m Andi, I’m one of the other competitors,” and we had a friendly chat. I was very impressed when I found out a bit later that he was a former world champion and one of the hot favourites. In a lot of mind sports the really good players don’t talk to the nonentities at all, so this was something a bit different. And it turned out that the ‘word on the street’ was that Andi had the potential to be much, much better than Dominic if he could just get his best results more consistently (which he did eventually achieve in 2002, completely blowing away Dominic and everyone else), so I looked up to him as my major inspiration in the early days.

I looked up to Andi Bell as my major inspiration in the early days.

The only thing Dominic said to me during the 2000 WMC, by the way, was “Was it you who was whispering?” – in the spoken numbers, somebody could be heard very loudly whispering the first few digits to himself over and over while the rest of the digits were still playing. But it wasn’t me, it was the guy in front of me. Also in the early days I took a lot of advice from the other British competitors, especially Robert Carder and Tom Groves, who helped me a lot.

The Ben System made him World Memory Champion

Memory-Sports: What made you to come up with the highly sophisticated “Ben System”?

Ben: By 2002, I was a regular memory competitor, but I knew that I had reached the limits of the system I was using. With a basic list of 52 images for cards and 100 for numbers, if you try to memorise a 1000-digit number in an hour, each image will appear an average of five times. If you try to memorise ten packs of cards, each image will show up ten times. And that’s too much,  it’s just not possible to go any further with a system like that. I managed eleventh place in the WMC that year (it was so much easier to do that back then!) using that system and a terrible category-based system for binary that I’d invented myself but which didn’t work at all (I always wanted to avoid translating binary digits into decimal and then converting them into images, so this system was my first attempt at ‘improving’ on the systems everybody else used by creating one of my own. It didn’t work, but that didn’t discourage me), but I knew I could never get any better than that if I didn’t start using a more advanced technique.

In November 2002 I left my job, which I was fed up with (I’d been there since April 1996), borrowed a lot of money at a high interest rate (this debt followed me around and stopped me having any money for a long time until I finally paid it off last year) and devoted some time to ‘working out what I want to do with my life’. This included a holiday in Las Vegas, a one-month course learning to teach English as a foreign language and a lot of sitting around my flat in my pants, watching cartoons. But it also involved taking a bit of time to think about memory techniques and how to make mine better.

The first step was to change to a 1000-image system for numbers. I didn’t want to do it using three Major-system consonants, though, because I thought I would learn them more easily and use them more quickly in competitions if each image was a simple one-syllable word. So I had the idea of using a vowel for the middle digit. So I created a list in that way, and practiced with it (placing three images on a location instead of two, just to see if that would work) until I was fairly sure it was better than the 100-image system I’d been using before. But I didn’t have much time for training, because of all the time I was spending sitting around in my pants, watching cartoons. It was only when I’d completely run out of money and had to get another job that I really started working on my memory system too.

I didn’t have much time for training, because of all the time I was spending sitting around in my pants, watching cartoons.

A smiling winner

The inspiration sort of came out of nowhere. As far as I can remember, I was idly thinking to myself ‘What can I do with cards? Person-action-object just doesn’t work for me [I’d tried that in my failed binary system], but how else can you increase your number of images and not have the same old 52 things over and over again? An image for each pair of cards? How many would that be? 2704. That’s not much more than 1000, it sounds possible. But how to convert them into a word?’ I thought about number-suit-number-suit, but that sounded too cumbersome. And I really liked my consonant-vowel-consonant system for numbers. Hey, I thought, there are only sixteen combinations of two suits. Sixteen consonants, thirteen vowels, thirteen consonants – can I do that? Sure, let’s try!

And from that, I realised that there were also sixteen combinations of four binary digits, so I could do that as 4-3-3 and use the same images to make an image for each ten-digit binary number, which is the perfect number to fit each line of 30 digits in a location! And, if I just amended a few of my 1000 decimal images (I still used ‘b’ or ‘p’ for ‘9’ in my first list, and so on), I could have a universal list of 2704 images that would cover EVERYTHING! What a cool system that would be! And so that was the moment of inspiration that turned into a couple of months of work creating images and trying to learn them all.

Memory-Sports: I know you hear that question every know and then. But one last time and you can always say “Read it on Memory-Sports.com!”: How does your system work in detail?

Ben: That really needs an article to itself. I’ll rewrite one of my old forum posts and turn it into a comprehensive “Ben system” guide, some time. But basically, it’s just an image of an object or person for each 3-digit decimal number, 10-digit binary number or pair of two cards, three objects in a location. Simple as that.

Memorizing for One Hour Cards

Memory-Sports: How long and intensive did you train your system before it was ready to go in a memory championship?

Ben: Very intensively – I realised I was onto something good straight away (this was in spring of 2003) and I spent every spare moment practicing. Luckily, my new job, which was awful in every other way, was a 35-minute train journey away from my home. So I was trapped on a train every day with nothing better to do than to learn my list of images. And when I got home, I would use those images in practicing cards, numbers and binary over and over. It was impressive how very quickly I exceeded my previous best in the marathon disciplines. Speed events took longer, but eventually, I was better than I’d ever been in those too. I never used my old system again after I’d created the new one, that would have been too confusing. So although it wasn’t completely ready to go, I used the new system in the MSO championship in August and to everyone’s surprise won it (beating Gunther and Dr Yip, who were two of the best in the world at that time), and then finished third in the WMC in October in Malaysia. I’m still improving, so you could say my system still isn’t completely ready to go…

Memory-Sports: You are still the MVP in memory sports but athletes like Johannes Mallow, Simon Reinhard, Gunther Karsten, Wang Feng, Su Ruiqiao and many more are getting extremely close. How do you deal with that pressure?

Ben: It’s no fun to be the number one. It is so much easier to improve if you’ve got someone to chase. I just try to remember that everyone on that list is better than me at at least one discipline, so I know I can keep improving if I work at it. But when it comes to a competition, I love the pressure – I always get my best results when I absolutely have to get a good score or lose the championship.

It’s no fun to be the number one. It is so much easier to improve if you’ve got someone to chase.

The champion is always in focus of the media

Memory-Sports: Do you think you can stay on top for much longer?

Ben: It depends whether I keep in training, and whether anybody else comes up with a new system that’s better than mine. Right now, I firmly believe that my system is the best there is, and I’ve got a head-start over anybody else who wants to use it, because I’ve been doing it since 2003. But I have to keep improving every year, because everybody else is improving too. And some day, I’m sure somebody unexpected is going to turn up at a competition with a new technique and will completely wipe the floor with me.

Memory-Sports: How much do you train these days?

Ben: Not NEARLY enough. I haven’t really done any training in the two months since the world championship in November. Even when I’m really motivated, I don’t come close to the levels of obsessive training I did back in 2003 and 2004, before I won the WMC for the first time. Sometimes I feel in the mood to train, and sometimes I don’t. I just have to hope that my motivated moods coincide with memory competitions.

Memory-Sports: Have you thought about an even greater system than the Ben System?

Ben: I have, but not seriously. Right now, I don’t need a better system, but that could all change some time soon. Maybe inspiration will strike me, but I’m not really trying to think of improvements at the moment.

Ben's greatest weakness is Names & Faces

Memory-Sports: Give your opponents some hope: What is your greatest weakness?

Ben: My opponents don’t need hope, they all know I’m inconsistent nowadays. Any one of six or seven rivals could have beaten me this year if they’d been at their absolute best. But my weakness is my lack of training, my hopelessness at Names & Faces and my lack of motivation to win the WMC again, compared to someone who’s never won it before.

My weakness is my lack of training, my hopelessness at Names & Faces and my lack of motivation to win the WMC again, compared to someone who’s never won it before.

Memory-Sports: What do you expect from the next World Memory Championship in China?

Ben: I’m hoping for another competition like 2009, with a whole lot of great memorisers producing amazing performances. The last World Championship was the most exciting ever, and I just hope they’re going to keep getting better!

Memory-Sports: Where do you see the sport in 2020?

Ben: The 2020 World Memory Championship will take place on the Moon. Tony Buzan will have recently made contact with the Royal Family of Moon-Men and agreed to hold the WMC there in return for five thousand tonnes of moon gold. Since space travel will still be restricted to astronauts, there will be no competitors at the 2020 WMC (although the press releases will still describe it as the biggest ever – the Moon-Men of course will not be eligible to compete because they’re not citizens of the World). However, down on Earth, there will be competitions in at least twenty countries, and in all of them the standard will be higher than we can even begin to imagine here in 2010. Probably.

Memory-Sports: Under these circumstances I think I should join NASA. Thank you for your time.

Ben’s Memory Statistics

And the winner is…

[poll id="9"]

I already have guessed it and you approved my theory: The Major System is the most popular memory system for numbers. We can speculate why but I think it is more than obvious: It is simply the best system for beginners. Its phonetic basis makes it logical and well structured. It is extremely easy to understand. Hence its simple code it can be reconstructed quickly even if one forgot the peg word. That helps a lot to memorize the entire 100 pegs.

So if you are just thinking about creating your first system, you should read my article about the Major System and go right ahead.

It makes me a little bit nostalgic when I think back to the year 2003 when I started with my Major System. I was in the German military service and I never left the barracks without my 100 flashcards in my pocket. It made this time much more enjoyable!

Who are the “Others”?

This question is not only interesting for fans of the TV series “Lost”. Obviously there are 22% of the votes for mysterious other number systems. I anticipated that there might be a few using others than the ones named in the poll but 22% is astonishing. Where are these votes coming from? Is this the unknown Chinese system every western memory athlete wants to know about? Or do we  see a rise of creativity in new and more effective systems to beat a certain Englishman sooner or later? Please write some comments if you have voted for “others”. This might get very interesting. (nerd)

PO & PVO – Here are the Hybrids

19% have voted for the Dominic or the very similar PO System. This means they use 200 peg words to memorize a number with a person and an action. Let it be a faithful Tiger Woods giving away roses or a CIA agent loosening his belt – these systems are full of surprises. Although they are less creative because you cannot decide what Tiger Woods does, 10,000 combinations (100×100) can be most interesting and so much more diversified than a “nose” popping up a dozen times when training for Speed Numbers. 8% (including me) are even going one step further and add 100 objects to their system. With PVO you have incredibly ONE MILLION combinations. Sometimes I have to be careful not to laugh out loud in a memory competition because of the silly image I just created.

Big Daddies

The following numbers proof the growing seriousness of memory athletes: 13% are using a 1,000 peg word triple Major System for memorizing numbers. And 6% go with Ben’s system which is also using 1,000 pegs with the capacity for ambitious (or should I say “crazy”?) upgrades for binary numbers and cards. If you don’t know how much work it is to create and memorize such a big daddy, let me tell you that: : I failed to do it for about seventeen million times due to motivation lost. @

Conclusion

The sport is growing! When I started in 2003 Gunther Karsten has probably been the only person in the world with a triple Major System. Nowadays some people simply skip the double systems and go straight for 1,000 images. Nevertheless there is still the largest fan base with the double Major System. We can only speculate when this will change.

It has nothing to do with history

You are very good with history? You have hundres or thousands of dates already in your head? This is marvelous, but it  wont help you at all. The dates you have to remember in a memory competition are all fake. Otherwise you could probably win this discipline without even looking at the dates presented to you – because you already learned them. Therefor you will get fictional dates with random years from 1000-2099. There will be no day or month to memorize  – only the year is of interest.

• Historical Dates: 5 minutes memorization / 10 minutes recall
  • World Record: 110.5 dates by Johannes Mallow

The Rules

Memorizing Period

• 110 different historic/future dates, with 40 dates on a page will be given (you can ask for more).
• The historic/future dates are between the years 1000 and 2099.
• All historic/future dates are fictitious or general (e.g. Peace Treaty signed).
• The length of the event text is between 1 and 10 words.
• Statistically the whole range of years will be used and no year (and no event) will be presented twice.
• The 4-digit number of the historic/future years are on the left side of the event and the events are written down under each other.

Recall Period

• Contestants will be given 3 sheets of Recall Paper with 40 historic/future event texts written on each.
• The historic/future event texts are in a different order from that of the memorizing phase.
• Contestants must now write down the correct year in front of the event texts.

Scoring

• A point is awarded for every correctly assigned year. All 4 digits of the year written down must be correct. Half a mark is deducted for an incorrectly assigned year.
• Only one 4-digit year can be written down in front of the event.
• The points are added up (max. 110 points).
• In the case of tied winning scores, the winner will be decided by counting the mistakes (incorrectly assigned dates) of the contestant – the contestant with less incorrectly assigned dates is the winner.

Tutorial by Jennifer Goddard

How to Memorize Dates

This is actually relativly easy because you don’t need any journeys. You only have to asscoiate your number-pegs from your major system (or whatever system you use for numbers) and associate it with the action of the date. There are now several ways to do so.

1st-level Dates

Since your major system is providing you with pegs for every two-digit combinations you have to memorize two pegs together with the action of the date.

For example:

1320 – Dinosaurs are getting cloned

You could now take your pegs for the numbers 13 (team) and 20 (nose) and associate them with a dinosaur: A soccer team is jumping on the nose of a T-Rex.

This is a very simple method to connect the date with the action. If you have a ready number system you could jump right now into action.

The downside of this method are for once that you have three elements to connect with each other.  And secondly you will have many stories with your pegs from 10-20 because all dates start with these eleven numbers.

1.5-level dates – conditions

To reduce the repetition of your pegs you can come up with something to get rid of the first digit. I you look at the rules you realize that ten out of eleven dates are starting with the digit 1. Therfore it will be enough to memorize only the last three digits. With a 1st-level major system decoding only two digits this will be difficult so you have to differentiate between the 11 different centuries. This can be achieved with several ways:

• Give them different states (a nose made out of jelly, stone or metall) each representing another century
• Different colors, smells, sounds
• Add one of eleven locations to each association (does it happen in the stadium, the bus or on top of a skyscrper?)

I worked with such a system for quite a while. It is not that easy but it works and it is much faster than making 1st-level connections.

For example:

1058 – King Charlie learns to fly

The King gets wings made out of jelly and flies over a stream of lava (58).

1158 – King Charlie learns to fly

The King gets wings out of stone and flies over a stream of lava. He looks now like a gargoyle.

1.5-level dates – overlapping

Nowadays I use another method: You also get rid of the first digit. Then you take the digit number two and three and recall the peg for this number. Next you take the digit number three again and also number four and recall that peg. Now you combine these two. If you are having a Person-Action system it is even better. The great plus of this way is that you can reconstruct one number if you remember the other one.

For example:

1170 – The pope is uniting all religions to a new super christianity

I take now the 17 (duck) and the 70 (kiss): A duck is kissing the pope.

If it is a date in the year 20xx I will simply use a special peg created only for this porpuse which could be anything you like. It will become very hard to forget the dates that way.

2nd-level dates

Like no other discipline in memory sports it pays of big to use a triple system for Historic Dates. Like I wrote above it helps alot to just get rid of the first digit because in most cases it is the same. So if you are able to bring the last three digits in only one peg you have an massive advantage in speed and clarity of your images.

For example:

1174 – Aliens are landing on earth

Simply take your peg for 174 (tiger) and associate it with the aliens: The aliens are riding on tigers.

Normally I don’t suggest a system to anybody but in this case I am very certain that a triple system is by far the best way to get great scores in this discipline.

Training is everything

Like all memory disciplines you have to train this one. It might be frustrating in the beginning when you compare your results to the world record. But you have to realize that Johannes Mallow is using a triple system and put a lot of effort into his training. I’d like to suggest you to train with Memocamp because the date function is excellent. There is an English version available now!

Historical Dates on Memocamp

Recently I stumbled upon this beautiful program watching a tutorial video from my associate Charles Cave. He is writing with me for our website Memory-Masters.com and has his own memory blog Building a Master Memory.

The Features

• Efficient scheduling algorithm, so you don’t waste time on things you know well
• Support for languages using different scripts through unicode
• Support for pictures, sounds and html formatting
• Can be integrated with LaTeX to display mathematical formulas
• Support for three-sided cards, e.g. foreign words where you are interested in written form, pronunciation and translation
• Can be run from a USB key
• Can display some basis statistical info on your learning process
• Keeps a detailed record of your entire learning process for analysis
• Your cards can be organised in categories, which can be activated and disactivated to control your learning process
• Clean, deceptively simple user interface, yet fully customisable for advanced users through configuration files and plugins
• Available in several languages
• Support for a large number of import and export formats (text, XML, Supermemo, Memaid, …)

Why this program is so amazing

1. First of all it is free!
2. Whatever you memorize you have to repeat in certain intervals. More often in the beginning and less frequently over time. The ideal repetition is after an hour, a day, a week, two weeks, a month, two months, half a year, a year, two years and so on. Doing this you will most certainly remember your stuff forever. This program will schedule your learning in exactly this way.
3. Motivate yourself by saving learning time. Only repeat what’s really necessary.
4. You can create nearly every thinkable flashcard with this tool.
5. Use the over hundred free learning sets and learn cool and interesting stuff on the fly.

Watch the tutorial

I think I made my point. If you are still not convinced have a look at Charles screencast. He will demonstrate a few features.

To the download page

I have been into really big trouble with girlfriends who think I should remember better when I forgot what they have been talking about during dinner. Girls should write down any important information, hand it over and give us five minutes to memorize it.

Memory-Sports: Have you been good in school?

Oddbjørn: Before I started with memory techniques I was just a normal student with poor motivation for learning. That changed in January 2004. Since then I’ve been using the techniques for many things like studies in university and salsa dancing for example.

Memory-Sports: What has been your first contact with memory techniques?

Oddbjørn: I read about some techniques to remember numbers on the Internet. It was similar to the Dominic System. Then I started to compete with a friend in Speed Numbers. Via email I came in contact with former world memory champion Andi Bell and he convinced me to come to his World Memory Cup in Weinheim. There I learned a lot from other athletes.

Memory-Sports: The Memory World Cup has been a one time only event and it happened outside of the rules of the World Memory Sports Council. Please tell us about it.

Oddbjørn: It’s been my first competition so I had no experience. But I felt it was very nice. We have been only a few competitors so it was a small and friendly gathering. Although there was a lot of controversy about that competition but it was a nice alternative back then.

Memory-Sports: What has been your next step in Memory Sports?

Oddbjørn: I went to the World Memory Championships Manchester in 2004. Later that year I started writing the book because I felt it was something every student in Norway should know about. I spent one year to write it. And then it was published in January 2006.

Memory-Sports: Your book is called “Memo” and one of its topics is Speed Exams. Please describe what you mean by that.

The international bestseller "Memo"

Oddbjørn: This is what I was doing mostly for fun. I was trying to test the memory systems as much as possible. So I signed up for exams in subjects I didn’t know about. I got some summaries from friends who have been participating in that subject. And then I just memorized summaries and went to exams. It went really good. So I’ve been doing that quite often at my university ever since. Not mostly for fun. It is also very motivational to learn stuff very quickly. But of course to go really into that subject you should follow the lectures. Therefore this is probably not a perfect approach for a student. But sometimes they should try this just for fun.

Memory-Sports: You are writing about the three big different number systems in your book: The Dominic System, the Triple System (or Ben System) and the Major System. What are the main differences between those three in your opinion?

Oddbjørn: For competition the Triple System has huge advantages especially for Historical Dates. But the drawback is that it takes a long time to master. Therefore I think that a Double System is very good for beginners. But in the end I don’t think that it is such a big difference between the systems. It’s about that your method becomes automatic and that your associations are coming quickly. The slight differences doesn’t matter that much.

It is very motivational to learn stuff very quickly.

Memory-Sports: What would you tell someone in a few sentences who wants to improve his learning but never heard of memory techniques before?

Oddbjørn: First of all I would say that it is impossible to remember everything. Of course you can remember the whole Bible or Koran if you spent thirty years of your life. But we don’t have thirty years for our exams. So even if we cannot remember everything, we can use these techniques to remember a lot. The way to do this is for example to use the Journey Method. I would recommend to write down important keywords and to memorize them. For an exam about the Second World War you could memorize keywords like “The Marshal Plan”, “The Blockade of Berlin” and “The establishment of NATO”. You could then memorize a marshmallow (Marshall Plan) outside the front door of your house and so on. In the exam you just walk this journey and pick out the keywords. But also a very important thing is not to write down everything you memorized like a robot. Maybe some of those keywords are simply not necessary for this particular exam.

The Norwegian Memory Star

Memory-Sports: Have you learned a lot using memory techniques?

Oddbjørn: Yes I have been really hungry to learn after I learned these methods. For example I learned seduction techniques with it.

Memory-Sports: Seduction? We should talk about this again with a nice cup of coffee when we see each other in London.

Do you make a special journey for every subject you want to memorize? Or do you use them twice or even more often?

Oddbjørn: If you want to memorize something for a long time you should use new permanently information in the same journey. But you can use it again to memorize temporarily information like a deck of cards.

Memory-Sports: Can you give us some advise in how to create a journey?

Oddbjørn: I would really recommend to use buildings and having one point in each room. The walls of each room are deviding the single stations of the journey from each other. To avoid ending up with an empty room after memorization you should make your associations close to the wall or interact with the room in some kind of way. Also I would recommend to walk through the walls or the roof. To get more points you could start outside of the building like the garden. In my experience the journey shouldn’t be too long. It is better to seperate the journey into several smaller ones. Personally I prefer something around thirty. But a good length could also be about fifty to hundred stations. Than you have better control of the points. Finally you should’t have too similar journeys because you could get confused.

It is better to seperate a long journey into several smaller ones.

Memory-Sports: Let’s talk more about memory competitions: You are the thrice Norwegian champion. When will be your next national event?

Oddbjørn: The next competition in Norway is in 2010. It is hold every two years. I hope it will be an Open the next time.

Memory-Sports: It’s been a while since your last championship outside of Norway. When are you entering the world stage again?

Oddbjørn memorizing a deck of cards

Oddbjørn: Hopefully in this years World Memory Championship in London. The last years I was busy with publishing the book in Sweden and Denmark. Now I fianally have the time to compete again. If I am in shape I will maybe come to Sweden as well.

Memory-Sports: Speaking of which: How are your skills these days?

Oddbjørn: I think it’s very good in Spoken Numbers but in Binary Numbers for example it is rubbish.

Memory-Sports: Which is you favorite discipline in Memory Sports?

Oddbjørn: That is Spoken Numbers because of the drama. If you memorize a hundred digits but you forget the second one you face dramatic consequences. And I like that you are forced into that speed.

Memory-Sports: What kind of system are you using?

Oddbjørn: I use the Double System for numbers. Only for recreational porpuse I use the Triple System from time to time. I am quite slow with it.

Memory-Sports: For what did you use memory techniques in your daily life?

Oddbjørn: I’ve been learning languages because if you remember a lot of vocabulary you get really motivated. You can come really far if you remember for example 1.000 words in Spanish, Italian or German. Also I’ve been using the techniques for presentations. So instead of just reading from a paper I used to memorize my speeches. Even for Salsa dancing I used it to remember the steps and moves. As I told you before I memorized seduction techniques with it. Finally I used it for daily situations like having an idea when I am on my bike. It is really painfull to forget a good idea. So I used to memorize it in an idea journey. When I come home I can recall it and write it down. It is not that I usememory techniques every day. Some days more and some days less.

Memory-Sports: Did your general memory improved even if you don’t use your techniques?

Oddbjørn: Since I became famous in Norway I HAD to remember. Because if I forget the name of people they will start with jokes about it. But I also think that forgetting in the daily life has something to do with being on autopilot. For example if you forget to post a letter on your way home from work, it’s probably because you’ve been driving on autopilot. I have been into really big trouble with girlfriends who think I should remember better when I forgot what they have been talking about during dinner. That’s how it is to be a memorizer.

Memory-Sports: Oh yes, I know that problem. It’s not that we don’t listen on porpuse but sometimes we are just not concentrated enough to memorize everthing they are saying.

Oddbjørn: I think girls should write down any important information, hand it over and give us five minutes to memorize it.

Memory-Sports: Indeed! Thank you for your time.

Buy “Memo” on Amazon

Oddbjørn with his book "Memo: The Easiest Way to Improve Your Memory"

Oddbjørn’s Memory Statistics

Everyone who is interested in memory sports should give it a try. It certainly isn’t that difficult how many might think. It rather is a lot fun.

Memory-Sports: What do you do for your living?

Dennis: I make an apprenticeship as a computer scientist and work on my A-Levels via distance study. Occasionally I teach math and computer science at the University of Cologne.

Memory-Sports: That keeps you quite busy, right?

Dennis: It’s ok. I still have more free time than others.

Memory-Sports: How did you come to memory sports?

Dennis: I watched Dorothea Seitz last year in November. Thereupon I bought the book by former Junior World Champion Christiane Stenger. I think it is called „Warum fällt das Schaf vom Baum?: Gedächtnistraining mit der Jugendweltmeisterin“
(English version: A Sheep Falls Out of the Tree: How Anyone Can Develop a Fantastic Memory)

Memory-Sports: What do you mean by „I think“, Mr. Memory Athlete? *both are laughing*

What has been your motivation to start to train your brain?

Dennis: I just thought it is super interesting and totally different to common sports like football or swimming.

Memory-Sports: What did you do after reading the book?

Dennis: I started training binary numbers and Speed Cards. They said in television that Dorothea was able to memorize a pack in two minutes. I wanted to do the same. At this point it took me ten minutes for a deck. The first six months I trained about 30 minutes up to an hour each day. Later I trained one of the seven basic disciplines once a day which resulted in doing each of them at least once a week. Today my effort decreased.

The first six months I trained about 30 minutes up to an hour each day.

Memory-Sports: What has been your first memory system?

Dennis: I started with the 2^nd-level Major System (100 pegs) and a 52 peg system for cards. Soon I realized that this is not what I wanted and I worked on creating bigger systems. That’s been after about four to five weeks of training.

Dennis Müller in sommer 2009

Memory-Sports: What exactly do you mean by “bigger systems”?

Dennis: The 3^rd-level Major System (1.000 pegs) and the 2^nd-level card system (2.652 pegs). But ever since I went back to a Person-Object System (PO) for the digits because I like it better.

Memory-Sports: Your effort is awesome! But what is your problem with the 3^rd-level Major System?

Dennis: It is a similar problem with the words: I place several objects on each location and mix them up. Using a PO is more effective to save locations and make sure to keep the order at the same time. On the other hand it is quicker to use the 3^rd-level Major System because you have fewer pictures to remember.

Memory-Sports: Only three memory athletes are using a 2^nd-level card system: World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore, German Champion Simon Reinhard and you. How long did it take you to create all the 2.652 pegs?

Dennis: About a week. I spend about four nights to gather the pegs and three days to memorize them and be able to use the system in practice. For this purpose I took a week off from work. It was worth it because I finished it in that time. But there are still about 400 pegs which cost me more time to remember than all the others.

Memory-Sports: How did you create your 2^nd-level card system?

Dennis: Just like with the digits I used PO for the cards. From each combination out of the persons and objects I associated a third peg. For example Britney Spears (person) and the axe (object) reminded me somehow of an executioner. Doing this it was quite fast to create and memorize all the 2.652 pegs.

Memory-Sports: That is very clever. It is indeed much quicker to memorize your new system by using natural associations from your previous pegs to create your new ones, instead of using a certain code like Simon and Ben did. On the other hand you have to remember your old associations first instead of just “reading” the cards. Regarding your own experience with that matter, what method would you suggest to others who are looking forward to create such a huge system?

Dennis: I think everybody should find out for himself how to do it. One may like Ben’s method better, another one mine and a third one a completely different technique. You cannot trivialize it.

Memory-Sports: Tell us a little about your first competition experience.

Dennis: My first championship has been the North German Championship in April 2009. Two weeks before that I was somehow discouraged and at the competition I was extremely nervous. Nevertheless I ended up second.

Memory-Sports: Your position has been great but even better has been your score: 3.190 points is amazingly good for a newcomer – especially since it was only Regional Standard (seven disciplines). You jumped from zero to somewhere in the sixties of the world rankings. What did you learn most from your first event?

Dennis: That the difference between training and competition results is much bigger than with other sports like football or chess. The memory sport is extremely unmerciful with mistakes.

Dennis Müller after the German Open 2009

Memory-Sports: Even before your first competition you have been treated like a secret favorite. Why the entire rumor about you?

Dennis: I think that was because I got a perfect score with the MemoryXL software. That probably scared several people in the first place because the highest level is extremely difficult. For example you have to memorize 400 digits in 5 minutes without a mistake.

Memory-Sports: A newcomer with the ability to memorize 400 digits in 5 minutes is indeed very scary. The gossip seems absolutely understandable under these circumstances. Didn’t those expectations put you under a lot of pressure?

Dennis: I might have thought about this too much and ended up with far worse results than in my training. My pretensions have been influenced by the expectations of the other athletes. In my next championship I only aimed for my own goals instead of listening to others.

Memory-Sports: And it obviously paid off. You have won your second competition shortly after that.

Dennis: Exactly. At the Cambridge Memory Championship in May I got closer to some of my training results. In Speed Binaries for example I memorized 630 digits. On the other hand I failed in other disciplines again. I hope this will stabilize soon.

Memory-Sports: Meanwhile you competed in two more championships: Out of competition at the South German Championship and at the German Memory Open. What is your experience after four memory events?

Dennis: I learned not to think about failure in the first place. You cannot change it before the discipline and you can’t do it after it as well.

Memory-Sports: What has been your most important success in memory sports so far?

Dennis: That would be the result in 30 Minute Binary at the German Memory Championship where I ended up with 2.421 digits. I wanted it to work out and it did.

I learned not to think about failure in the first place. You cannot change it before the discipline and you can’t do it after it as well.

Memory-Sports: Very impressive! Let us have a look at your personality. You told me once that you have synesthesia. Can you tell us something about it?

Dennis: Synesthesia is an entanglement of different senses. In my case I see numbers and letters in colors. The five for example is pink. That results in seeing a much more colorful world than a normal person without that ability. If you look at a book page the letters only appear in black. For people like me it is multicolored because every letter has a different color.

Tools and Snacks for a competition

Memory-Sports: Do you think that your synesthesia is a benefit for your life?

Dennis: The advantage is that I see the world more open minded. The structure of each text reminds me of shapes. But that brings me to its disadvantage too: If I say that out loud people think I am crazy or on drugs. They just don’t know this ability and cannot understand it. There are only very few people I know with synesthesia. Junior World Memory Champion Dorothea Seitz is one of them.

Memory-Sports: Does your synesthesia benefit you in memory sports?

Dennis: Especially with binary digits it does. As soon as I translate a block of three binaries into a single decimal digit it will turn into a certain color. If I translate 111 for example it will turn red because the seven is red (read more about binary systems: How to become a Memory Champion – Part 5). It gives me a much better overview over the whole page. Meanwhile I am able to see the blocks of three digits nearly immediately in the right color.

Memory-Sports: Does your synesthesia influence you beside letters and digits?

Dennis: I can taste the voices of some people. That means I will literally have a certain taste in my mouth when they talk with me. But that only happens once in a while. Your voice for example is neutral. In all my life I met about 350 people whose voices tasted like something. It is still a mystery to me why some people taste like they do. The voice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for example tastes like beer.

Memory-Sports: Really? That is a funny coincidence since we Germans are well known for our beer. Have you met people with – let me say – less delicate tastes than beer?

Dennis: Yes, it happened to me with my old German teacher in school. But what his voice tasted like is – ahem – negligibly.  *laughs*

Memory-Sports: Ok, we better leave it at that. Did you suffer in your youth when you realized that you are not like the other kids?

Dennis: I wouldn’t call it suffering, but there certainly have been strange situations in school. For example in the first grade: My teacher wrote something on the blackboard with a colored chalk to improve the readability for us. But I couldn’t read it because it was flickering the whole time. When I told him that he should use white chalk instead because the red and green glint confuses me I earned very strange looks from him and the entire class. You have to know that synesthesia is additive. When you see a digit written in blue but your personal color for it is red it will result in an unsteady change of the two colors. That can be very confusing.

The voice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for example tastes like beer

Memory-Sports: What will be your next step in Memory Sports?

Dennis: I will compete in Sweden in September and of course at the World Memory Championship in November. My goal for this year is to achieve 6.000 championship points and get my Grand Master of Memory.

Memory-Sports: World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore called you one of the hot candidates to succeed him in the future. Do you plan to get the memory crown?

Dennis: I certainly aim for it but I don’t think it will happen in the next two years because I lack experience. Ben is doing it for so many years now that his know-how is far more superior to mine. Directly attacking the crown will take at least two or three years of experience before it gets realistic. It just is very difficult to keep a top level over all the ten disciplines.

Memory-Sports: Do you have any last words for the readers?

Dennis: Everyone who is interested in memory sports should give it a try. It certainly isn’t that difficult how many might think. It rather is a lot fun.

Dennis’ Memory Statistics

Dennis Müller - The hottest Newcomer in Memory Sports

Foreword

Memorizing Words is probably the first discipline in memory sports you ever had contact with. Maybe it has been the typical shopping list (which personally I’ve never used and also never heard of anybody who did – but this is another story), keywords for a speech or an exam or to learn a long poem. Anyhow you will have realized that this discipline is extremely intuitive and easy to do. There is nothing easier for a student of mental improvement than memorizing a list of 20 words. But it can become extremely difficult, too. It is a huge difference if you are learning a small shopping list without any pressure of time or if you are memorizing as many words as fast as possible in a memory championship. So let’s prepare you for your first discipline.

Speed Words and Random Words

In each memory championship following the national or international standard by the World Memory Sports Council there will be the discipline 5 Minutes Words (I call it Speed Words). The competitors have five minutes to memorize random words. After the memorization period their sheets will be collected by the arbiters and the 10 Minutes recall starts. This discipline was introduced to the sport in 2006 to help shorten a normal memory competition. The second discipline of this category is Random Words. It has been the standard for all championships until 2006. Nowadays it is only used for the two big fishes: The German Memory Open and of course the World Memory Championship. The only difference between those two disciplines is the time of memorization and recall: In Random Words the competitors have a 15 Minutes memorization period and a 30 Minutes recall period.

• Speed Words: 5 minutes memorization / 10 minutes recall
  • World Record: 109 words by Katie Kermode
• Random Words: 15 minutes memorization / 30 minutes recall
  • World Record: 280 words by Boris Konrad

The Rules

For both Speed Words and Random Words the rules are the same (except the time, the amount of presented words and the championship points):

Memorizing Period

1. Each competitor gets memorizing sheets with 100 generally known words on each paper. The words are ordered in columns of 20 with five columns on each page.
2. Contestants must start at the first word of column 1 and remember as many of the words as possible in order.

Recall Period

1. Contestants may write down the list of words on the Recall Papers provided.
2. If a contestant wishes to use his/her own Recall Papers, these must be approved by the adjudicator before the competition.
3. Each word must be clearly numbered and the start and finish of each column of words easily identifiable.

Scoring

1. A point is awarded for every word in a complete column where all 20 words are correctly spelt.
2. One mistake (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words gives a score of 10 for that column (20/2).
3. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) in a column of 20 words scores 0 for that column.
4. The contestant may use upper or lower case letters.
5. For the final column only: If the final column is partially complete, a point is awarded for each word if every one is correctly spelt. One mistake (including any gaps) in the partial column means the points awarded will equal half the number of words recalled. Two or more mistakes (including any gaps) will score 0 for the column.
6. *If a word has been clearly memorized, but has been spelled in an incorrect way, no points are given for this word. It will not, however, cancel other words in a column. For example, if somebody writes ‘rythm’ instead of ‘rhythm’, no points will be given for this word, and, if all other words in the column are correct, full marks minus one will be given for that column (e.g. 19).
7. If there is both one memory mistake in a column and a spelling mistake, than first the maximal points given for the column will be halved and than a point for the wrong spelled word will be subtracted (e.g. max 20 points, divided by 2 gives 10 points, minus one is 9.) [The different order leads to 9.5 points]
8. The points for each line will be added up. If a non integer result is obtained, it will be rounded up (72.5 points => 73 points).
9. In the case of tied winning scores, the winner will be decided by looking at the extra columns the contestant tried to recall but for which he/she got 0 points. For every correctly positioned word there will be given 1 decision point. The contestant with more of those decision points is the winner.

*This rule has been introduced to limit the complications that may arise from spelling ambiguities, mistakes in translations, dyslexia, and handicaps for foreigners etc.

How to Memorize Words

Actually you already learned what it takes to memorize words. Use your elephant path and associate your locations with the words. There are several ways to do that:

One word per location

The upside of this technique is a quick association with an absolutely clear order. You will not have problems to put the words back into their original positions as long as you remember your images. The downside is a massive amount of locations. Trying to break the world record in Random Words would cost you at least 281 journey points.

Two (or more) words per location

This is a commonly used technique. Create an image out of two words and your location. You will need 50% less journey points. Also it is a matter of fact that the images will strengthen each other. In most cases it makes a perfect story. The downside however is the omnipresent chance of mixing up the order of these two words. To avoid it you have to follow certain rules. Very popular is to concentrate where you place the words in the mental picture: The first image is on top and/or on the left side. The second one is on the bottom and/or on the ride side. Rules like these will help you to establish a save recall. Make up your own if those don’t fit you. Using more than two images is possible but increases the chance of mixing them up. Be careful if you want to go this path young padawan.

Repetition

I think that nearly everybody is repeating the words at least once – even in Speed Words. In Random words you should repeat them twice to stabilize your pictures. Since each word will be unique and probably a first time appearance since you train this discipline, you will struggle with less security than with numbers and cards. Try to make a quick recall of your pictures instead of just reading them again. Improve your images if necessary.

Common Mistakes

Regarding the strict rules of this discipline it is very important to make no mistakes at all. Here are the most common ones which will cost you many points:

• Plural/singular: Make sure that you don’t mess this up in your images. The difference between “tree” and “trees” will cost you half a row. Try to focus on the appropriate amount in your pictures and you will be fine.
• Spelling: There are several ways to spell a word with slightly changes i.e.” jump” and “jumping”. Although this will also change its meaning in most cases it is still difficult to remember because the general sense stays the same. This also depends on your language. I am not completely certain but I think it happens far more often in German than in English. You should use mental helps to difference between them. For my example above you could imagine that you are “jumping” yourself instead of telling your journey point to “jump”. Come up with a good idea and you will avoid this common mistake.
• Synonyms: This is a bad one. Since we are using images to improve our memory ability, our brain can trick us in the recall. We will just remember the picture of an item but it might have several names i.e. “ship” and “boat”. You should always be aware of this fact and concentrate in the first place to avoid confusion in your recall. You could break down the word into its elements. For example a manufactory will easily be confused with factory. But if you think about Manchester United (Manu) working in a factory it will help to remember the difference.
• Abstract words: Very often you will be confronted with abstract words. In order to memorize them using your journey points you will have to transform them into some kind of stereotype image. The verb “invent” could be memorized as a glowing bulb. But you also could end up in recall with a similar association like “idea”. Sometimes it is enough to make clear that the bulb doesn’t mean “idea”.  But quite often you don’t have the time to look for similar associations in the first place and just use what pops into your mind. Therefore you have to be very carefully and precise with your images. A glowing bulb maybe wouldn’t be the best idea in this case, would it?

Instruction video

Third level arbiter Jennifer Goddard created a tutorial video for Speed Words. It will help you further to understand this discipline better.

In memory of Mareen Blaß

This article is dedicated to Mareen Blaß. Since 2005 she has been a memory athlete. She ranked 144^th in the world when she passed away. Her fondly character will be remembered in our hearts.

Mareen Blaß arbiting at the North German Memory Championship 2009

The binary code

Since Speed Binary is part of all national and international memory championships, memorizing binary digits is an essential skill for all memory athletes. For the German Open and the World Memory Championship additionally there is the discipline 30 minutes Binary.

But what actually is a binary number? Wikipedia writes:

The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system represents numeric values using two symbols, usually 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used internally by all modern computers.

In the end each binary number represents a decimal equivalent. We use this fact to translate the binaries into decimals. We already learned how to memorize decimal digits with the Major System. This is as easy as taking candy from a baby. Hence binary digits aren’t anything to be scared off in a memory competition. In fact it is an astonishingly motivating because of the pure amount of data each athlete is memorizing within one single image.

This is how you translate the binary code into the Major code:

• 000 = 0 = S
• 001 = 1 = T
• 010 = 2 = N
• 011 = 3 = M
• 100 = 4 = R
• 101 = 5 = L
• 110 = 6 = J
• 111 = 7 = K

It isn’t really hard to memorize even without a mental help. But if you still struggle with the translation you should be aware of the following rule:

The first binary digit will be multiplied by 4. The second will be multiplied by 2. The third will be multiplied by 1. If you add all three results you get your decimal number.

Examples:

• 011 = 4 x 0 + 2 x 1 + 1 x 1 = 3
• 101 = 4 x 1 + 2 x 0 + 1 x 1 = 5

We don’t bring the binaries to four digits because this way they fit perfectly into our Major System as you will see in the next passage.

1^st-level Binary System

With all the techniques we already learned in the previous episodes of How to become a Memory Champion, it is fair enough to call the simplest adaption of the Major System the 1^st-level for binary systems. It is very easy and powerful.

Just take six binary digits and put them together to one Major peg:

• 001 (T) + 011 (M) = Team
• 010 (N) + 111 (K) = Nike
• 111 (K) + 000 (S) = Kiss

Pretty easy, right? As you can see I skipped the part where I translate the binaries into decimals. That is not necessary if you learn the consonants from the beginning. With a little training you will be able to “read” the binaries like letters. The next steps are already familiar: Associate your pegs with your locations by following the elephant rules.

To memorize a 300-binary-digit this way you need 50 images.

1.5-level Binary System

Remember the improved cluster-systems for numbers and cards like PVO (person-verb-object). You can easily adopt them for binaries as well. Actually this system feels even more powerful with the binaries because you will encode eighteen (18) digits in one single image. I will use my personal system to give you an example:

• 20 = nose (PVO: Pinocchio – sneezing – nose)
• 27 = Nike (PVO: Michael Jordan – jumping – Nike shoe)
• 30 = mouse (PVO: Mickey Mouse – hugging – Ferris Wheel)
• 010 000 010 111 011 000 – Pinocchio jumps over a Ferris Wheel

In an adult memory competition each row always contains 30 binary digits. Therefore it could make sense to you to try memorizing a whole row on one single location. I do that by using a variation of my system: PVOPV for example contains 30 digits. But that is something you should decide for yourself. Maybe it doesn’t fit your preferences for mental images. Or maybe it simply slows you down.

To memorize a 306-binary-digit this way you need only 17 images.

2^nd-level Binary System

The next step on the binary evolution is the 3^rd-level Major System. Create a peg list of 1.000 images and you are ready to go for nine binaries in one single non-clustered image. This might not sound as promising as eighteen digits within a clustered image. But actually it is easier and quicker to memorize (if you know your 3^rd-level number system as good as your PVO). It seems like a whole lot of effort to create and learn such a system (and it most certainly is). But if you take a look at the best memorizers in the binary disciplines you will find athletes with such (or even a better system) on top of the rankings.

One image could look like this:

• 001 (T) + 111 (G)  + 100 (R) = Tiger

To see this beautiful and catchy tiger, it feels like a waste of time using a PVO-system. But on the other hand it is an awful lot of work. Decide for yourself whether or not you are willingly to go this way.

To memorize a 306-binary-digit this way you need 34 images.

3^rd-level Binary: The Ben System

The World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore went one step further with his system. He is allocating three different letters (or sounds) to binaries. Ten digits combined produce one single image. Although it is just one digit more than a 2^nd-level system it is probably far more powerful. Regarding the fact that each row includes 30 binary digits one can put three images together on one location to memorize a whole row.

His code is based on the Major System and looks like this:

First consonant (first four digits)

• 0000 = s
• 0001 = t
• 0010 = n
• 0011 = m
• 0100 = r
• 0101 = l
• 0110 = g/j
• 0111 = k
• 1000 = f
• 1001 = b
• 1010 = p
• 1011 = d
• 1100 = h
• 1101 = sk/sn/sm
• 1110 = st/sp
• 1111 = sh/sl/sw

Vowel (next three digits)

• 000 = `oo’ as in `you’
• 001 = `a’ as in `cat’
• 010 = ‘e’ as in ‘pet’
• 011 = ‘i’ as in ‘kitten’
• 100 = ‘o’ as in ‘tom’
• 101 = ‘u’ as in ‘puss’
• 110 = `A’ as in `hay’
• 111 = `E’ as in `bee’

Second consonant (final three digits)

• 000 = s
• 001 = t
• 010 = n
• 011 = m
• 100 = r
• 101 = l
• 110 = g
• 111 = k

To memorize a 300-binary-digit this way you need 30 images.

Conclusion

Speed Binary is a great discipline in memory sports. It isn’t any more difficult than numbers or cards but for outsiders it seems to be impossible. Soon we can expect that athletes are taking the obstacle of 1.000 digits in only five minutes. If you want to jump into action right now you should check out the binary training on Memocamp.

Memorizing Cards

Memory athletes during Speed Cards

If you have ever watched a top memory athlete memorizing a deck of cards, you probably understand the astonishment about this action. Compared to all of the other championship disciplines you actually see what’s going on: The competitor is rushing through the 52 cards in his or her hands, getting only a glimpse of each of them. After an out-of-the-world short time the stopwatch is being clicked and the athlete goes into some kind of meditation, recalling all the images which have been created a few seconds ago. More and more athletes around the world are able to memorize a deck of cards in five minutes or less. 166 competitors (June 2008) already have proven to do this in an official championship in the lasts years. On top of all this Speed Cards is always the last discipline at a tournament and therefore the most exciting one. Many athletes have taken the lead in this very last round.

The Different Card Systems

Speed Cards is the ultimate discipline in Memory Sports

Other than the number systems you will most certainly not start with a cluster for your card images. To refresh your memory, a cluster is containing a few information stored in one image. Due to the 52 cards in a poker deck, a 1st-level system is much more elaborate than its little brother for 10 numbers. You’ll need at least 52 pegs to translate each card into a different image. There are many different approaches to create them.

The easiest one I know (as long as you don’t already have a Major System) was created by Steffen Bütow (former German Speed Cards record with 45.82 seconds at the North German Championship in 2003). It categorizes the four colours into four categories and than uses a number-form system to translate the cards. Because it is very intuitive and based on visual associations, you will be able to memorize it in a few hours.

Another approach is by using the Major System (or any other system you used as a 2nd-level number system). You just take those images and use it for the cards, too. By doing that you don’t have to learn any new images. I will explain this approach in detail below.

Then there are a few simple cluster systems like person-object (PO), person-verb (PV) and person-verb-object (PVO). For those you create your first 52 pegs with the system of your choice and then extend it to 104 or even 156 pegs and more with natural associations. The most evolved system for cards was created by the actual World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore and is a true 2nd-level card system.

The 1st-Level System

Although there are several cluster systems for cards I will start with a simple 1st-level system. It is relatively easy to learn. Since we already created a Major System in the last episode we will use it now for cards, too. The advantage is that you don’t have to create and memorize 52 new images. Another benefit is that each time you train either number or cards you also train your images for the other discipline. The downside is that you have a smaller variety in images which probably could influence the clearness of your mental pictures. In my case it doesn’t!

If you look at the logic behind the 52 cards you realize that there are many numbers among them which makes it easy to use the Major System.

Let us assign our Major pegs now to the cards: If you look at the logic behind the 52 cards you realize that there are many numbers among them which makes it easy to use the Major System. The thirteen cards of each colours are divided into the numbers two to nine, the Jack, the Queen, the King and the Ace.

1. We divide the 52 cards into the four colours and sort them. Personally I ordered the four colours like their worth in the German card game “Skat” which is Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs. But you should order them as you like.
2. If we use the Ace as the number one we have a perfect order from Ace to King regarding the natural numbers for nine of the thirteen cards.
3. There are now different approaches:
   1. We assign the cards logically to our Major pegs. What I did is to use the Diamonds Ace to ten for the numbers 01-10. Now I do a trick: Instead of breaking the great congruence of the numbers by using the digits 11-13 for Jack, Queen and King, I switch now to Hearts. Hence I assign 11-20 with Ace of Hearts to ten of Hearts followed by Spades for 21-30 and Clubs for 31-40. Those first 40 cards are easily allocated and memorized. Each time you see the six of Spades you will remember that Spades is in the 20s and therefore it must be your number 26! Quite easy so far.Now to the tricky part: 41-43 will become the persons of Diamonds, 44-46 the persons of Hearts, 47-49 the persons of Spades and 50-52 the persons of Clubs. Those last 12 cards are not very intuitive and easy to learn, but nevertheless not that difficult after all.
   2. Alternatively you can assign the persons of Hearts to 51-53, the persons of Spades to 61-63 and the persons of Clubs to 71-73.
   3. Another approach would be by assigning all Diamonds to 1-13, all Hearts to 21-33, all Spades to 41-53 and all Clubs to 61-73. You should decide which way makes more sense to you. Maybe you come up with another way of using your Major System. Like everything in memory techniques you should find the way you like best.

Maybe you already realized it by yourself: Your handsome 2nd-level number system had just been reduced to a simple 1st-level card system!

The 1.5-Level System

In Speed Cards you recall with a second deck of cards

After you created your 1st-level system and used it a bit you will find out that it is quite an effort to memorize a deck of cards. The reason for this is because of the fact that you don’t use any clusters whatsoever. You just assigned one image for each card. Therefore you need 52 journey points on your elephant path to memorize the whole deck. With numbers you could already memorize 104 digits with the same amount of locations.

A great way to improve your system is by creating a cluster for your cards. An easy solution is the PO (PV, PVO) System. To be perfectly correct it is actually not a proper cluster because you don’t increase the amount of data per image. What you do is to increase the amount of data per story and therefore per location. The first thing you might come up with is to use more than one image on each journey point. But that is very risky because you could forget the correct order. By using 52 persons and 52 objects you will always know that the person comes first and the object comes second. It doesn’t matter in which order you remember them.

Creating a PO System is extremely intuitive and easy to memorize because you use your own natural associations.

Creating that list is extremely intuitive and easy to memorize because you use your own natural associations: If your number 40 (ten of Clubs) is RoSe (object) than your natural association could be Sleeping Beauty (person). If your 23 is NeMo (person) your object could be a submarine. It is so easy that you wont really have to memorize it at all. You just have to come up with your best associations once, write it down and you will realize that it is still there the next time you are recalling it. If it is not popping into your head immediately there might be a better image for you.

Instead of objects you can also use actions (verbs). Some athletes (including myself) are using a PVO System with all three lists. You could go even further and add as many other different lists you want.

The memorization process is slightly different to your normal stories because you will have to combine at least three elements with each other: the person, the object and your location. Make sure you clearly distinguish between all of your persons. Otherwise you will just remember that someone was dancing with a microphone on your bed. Each person should get at least one unique attribute like a huge belly, a beard or a hat. That’s all and you already saved 50% of your locations.

But there is also a downside to this system: As more lists you use, it exponentially reduces your creativity and increases the necessity for a very clear and good story. And that takes precious time which you don’t have in a memory competition. Therefore I would not suggest to go any further as a PVO System. And even this is already very limited because the whole story is defined by the order of the pegs. I already started to train PV instead of PVO (which I was using for about four years) because I like the freedom in creativity. But this is another question of personal interest. If you go for a 1.5-level system you should start with PO (or PV) and slowly upgrade the system to your needs and skill if necessary.

The 2nd-Level System

Ben Pridmore was the first athlete with a true 2nd-level card system. It creates a proper cluster by combining two cards to one image. For doing this you need 52×51=2652 images, which is a massive amount of pegs. And this system is for cards only! Actually I don’t really know how Ben (or Simon Reinhard and Dennis Müller) created and memorized this system. I will ask one of them and report it in an upcoming episode. But you get the point: It is an extremely powerful system and much more evolved than its smaller brothers. Even PVO is in my opinion far less sophisticated.

Nevertheless I would nobody recommend this system except you aim for the memory crown. And even then you can do it with a smaller system. Three times World Memory Champion Andi Bell memorized a deck of cards in 31.16 seconds with a PVO-System (156 pegs). But on the other hand have a look at the two top scores in Speed Cards: Ben Pridmore with 26.28 and Simon Reinhard with 27.36 seconds each of them using a 2nd-level system. I quote chief arbiter Phil Chambers:

Phil Chambers: I believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

That’s it for today. I hope you found this article useful to create your own system for cards. Please feel free to use the comments for any questions, critic or different point of views. And to give you a little insight in the practical use of your new system, I add Simon Reinhard’s national record in Speed Cards. Watch it, love it, learn it!

Awesome Memory: German Speed Cards Record from Flauwy on Vimeo.

South German Memory Champion Simon Reinhard is memorizing a deck of cards in 27.36 seconds and creates a new German record. See this marvelous accomplishment with your own eyes.

Learn the techniques yourself – it is easy and fun. Everyone can do it!

The most impressive thing is the rapid progression in the sport and seeing what the human brain is actually capable of.

Memory-Sports: How did you come to memory sports?

Phil Chambers: The main introduction to memory sports was at the World Memory Championship. I was in the ‘Use Your Head Club’ at university. Through that I met someone called James Lee, who was involved in the tournament. He was one of Tony Buzan fellow advisers apparently. So I was invited to watch the competition. I did and enjoyed it, took part in the second year myself, become involved in the marking and from then on I did more and more. Eventually I ended up as chief arbiter as I am now.

Memory-Sports: So you competed once yourself?

Phil Chambers: I did competed in just the card events. That was in 1994 where I became seventh in Hour Cards, with two decks. That was good at the time – now that’s nowhere near good enough. I’m now ranked 551, because your rankings go down, if you not compete. And I haven’t since then.

Memory-Sports: How did it happen that you became an arbiter?

Phil Chambers: I was involved at a time when memory events first started with many competitors but certainly not enough qualified arbiters. So people from the audience where involved in the marking. I was frustrated at the time because the scoring was very paper based. So I introduced the idea of calculating the results with spread sheets on a computer and automate the process. Since then I worked my way through and became chief arbiter.

Memory-Sports: You have seen the sport from nearly the beginning. What is the most impressive thing in its evolution?

Phil Chambers: I think the fact is that at every World Championship at least one record has been broken. It shattered the predictions the psychologists did in the first year of the competition. They said it is impossible to come anywhere near to the results we have now in Spoken Numbers. Within a few years those ultimate barriers were broken. So the most impressive thing is the rapid progression in the sport and seeing what the human brain is actually capable of. Far more than anybody believed is ever possible.

Ben Pridmore and Phil Chambers at the Cambridge Memory Championship

Memory-Sports: Are the top athletes already close to their limits?

Phil Chambers: I don’t think so. As people get more and more sophisticated systems, such as Ben Pridmore’s count system, which is very effective especially for cards, I think there will be an increasing in “mental technology” if you like. Eventually we will come to a point such there is in physical sports, where a limit has been reached. Until that point comes we’ve got plenty of room for improvement.

Memory-Sports: Do you think that it only depends on the technique or is there a certain skill involved?

Phil Chambers: The most likely thing is, that there is about 90 percent technique. If you look at the top memorizers, they are the people with the best technique – not necessary people with a natural brilliant memory. Ben for example claims to be absent-minded and yet is world champion. So I think technique is the biggest thing. But you also need the natural determination drive to actually implement and practise those  – and also put in the time and effort to achieve the ultimate heights.

Memory-Sports: A point against that argument would be Clemens Mayer who used only a second level Major System.

Phil Chambers: Clemens obviously did extremely well. Maybe he had more ability to form strong images. A good imagination, hence him using less sophisticated techniques in a more effective way but I still believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

I believe that technique wins out over natural memory most of the time.

Memory-Sports: Since you are an arbiter, you probably have seen people cheating at memory events. Can you share your experience with us?

Phil Chambers: It’s very rare. Memory is one of the most honorable sports. 99.9% of all competitors are totally honest and wouldn’t even dream of cheating. But there happened a few instances in the past where competitors have attempted to cheat. Generally it seems that they are under particular externally pressure.

One example was a competitor in an National Championships. The person involved was the oldest competitor in that event and hence the media had a special focus on him. He hadn’t had much time to practice the techniques so was doing badly. So in one discipline he hid some notes of the answers during the memorisation phase. We spotted this and had a quiet word. He apologised and clearly regretted the incident so we didn’t score him for that discipline.

Memory-Sports: Can you please explain how the World Memory Sports Council works?

Phil Chambers: The WMSC comprises of Tony Buzan as the founder and president, myself as chief arbiter and Chris Day as secretary. We also have Dominic O’Brien and Ramond Keene (Co-founder to the World Memory Championships) in very valuable an advisory capacities. The Council encourages advise from the outside. So if we have a potential change of rules, the top competitors in the sport are consulted. We try to be as open and transparent as possible. But nevertheless we take the ultimate decision within the Council itself.

Memory-Sports: The committee is pretty small, but there are plans to create national committees all over the world, right?

Phil Chambers: That’s true. The idea is to set up national sports councils in every country where is a reasonable number of competitors. For example there is already a national council in Germany and Australia. We are aiming to set up others around the world as the sports grows. There are a certain amount of national tournaments under the guidelines of the World Council. They represent the sport in those countries. The people who compete at these championships are members of that particular body which will then feed into the World Championships, the world rankings and so on. The idea was to distribute the running of national events to the national councils around the world.

Phil Chambers in Poland

Memory-Sports: How can you become an arbiter?

Phil Chambers: There are four levels of arbiters. You start of under the supervision of a higher level arbiter doing markings and being involved in running of a national or local event. And once you successfully marked competition papers in that event, you become qualified to be level one. Then you can go and work at other national and international events in that capacity but still under supervision of a higher level. Once you worked both behind the scenes as well as announcing in the competition room itself at a national event and at least once at a World Championship, you become a level two arbiter. That means you can supervise the level one arbiters and actually run a tournament yourself in your own country. In addition to that, if you set up a competition in another country then you become level three. Currently the only level three arbiter is Jennifer Goddard from Australia who worked at the Australian Championship, Thailand and the World Championship as well. And then myself as level four, the chief arbiter, who overseas the other arbiters below that.

Memory-Sports: So what can I do if I am interested in becoming an arbiter myself?

Phil Chambers: Either contact your local memory council or the World Memory Council. Or you just come to an event, ask to volunteer as an arbiter and we can give you some training and involve you in the marking of that initial event.

Memory-Sports: The memory championships are growing all over the world. There are upcoming national tournaments every year. But there is still a lack in visitors. It is just not very interesting to watch. What are your plans to improve that situation?

Phil Chambers: One of our plans to the future is to involve technology. Such as laptops for example where the data you enter is instantly relayed to a screen. So you can present that data in many different ways which makes it a much more exiting spectator sport. One of the ideas that Dominic O’Brien had, is to have a little animated character. For example a little Ben Pridmore, running along a track, as he enters his binary digits. So the character progresses along the track and immediately if he enters a wrong digit he falls over and has to pick himself up and then carry on. That makes it much more visual, much more engaging. And you can compare competitors live as they competing and see how well they are doing. You don’t have to wait for the scoring. During the memorization process there is not much to see except for Speed Cards. It’s just like watching an exam. But once you’ve got that engagement and that excitement, I think that would build interest for visitors and the media. It would be far easier to understand what is going on in the sport.

One of the ideas is to have a little animated Ben Pridmore, running along a track, as he enters his binary digits.

Memory-Sports: With technology the chance for fresh new disciplines arises. Have you put some thoughts into that?

Phil Chambers:  Yes, certainly new disciplines can be built in. But we have to reflect historically the system prior to the new technology. So those new disciplines have to be additional and separate from the main ten disciplines that have been solid within the World Championship. Another addition which comes with the technology is the removal of geographical barriers. That way you can have simultaneous tournaments in multiple places around the world. The data is collated centrally via the Internet and can again be displayed live to visitors. As long as you have an arbiter presence in a location to make sure nobody is cheating, there is no reason why you couldn’t have someone in China compete against someone in Europe at the same time.

Memory-Sports: What do you think about the US Memory Championships? They have a special championship round which is more interesting for spectators.

Phil Chambers: The USA needed to raise media interest in order to run the event. And the only way they could do that is to make it more media friendly like a game show. The problem with that is that it brings an element of chance into the competition. Especially if you have the play offs between competitors sitting on the stage. So a competitor could move himself out the contention before the question reach actually someone in the line. Therefore another one could win the competition through that chance rather than the own achievement. In that sense there are disadvantages to it. Also it means that they’re competing in a different framework to the rest of the world. Hence they can’t be included in the world rankings based on their performance in the American National Championship. I can see why they did it and I also see that it has value. But in order to be effective world wide you have to receive the same type of questions in the same way to be able to compare the performances between each other. A lot of the American champions are now going to the World Championships to test themselves on the world stage and see where they stand globally.

Memory-Sports: The UK Memory Championship is one of the biggest championships in the world and was created by Tony Buzan himself. What can we expect from this years event?

Phil Chambers: We will have parallel lectures as part of the competition. So visitors can come and learn about memory from Dominic O’Brien, myself and possibly Tony Buzan as well. Also we possibly going to run a Speed Reading event in parallel, but that is not confirmed as yet. And the Staunton Memorial Chess Tournament takes place that weekend as well.

Memory-Sports: What can we expect from the World Memory Championship this year?

Phil Chambers: There will be an announcement in the next few weeks with all the details for the 2009 competition. Although the winning bids recently have come from Bahrain we are very open to bids from other countries for 2010 and beyond. We will consider any serious proposition from a country that feels they can match the fantastic support that we have had from Bahrain. Obviously we want to make the event as entertaining and valuable for everyone as possible.

Memory-Sports: Thank you for your time.